Seafood Converter
Blue-Eye Trevalla
Standard Names: Blue-Eye Trevalla, Hyperoglyphe artartica
Blue-Eye Trevalla is often mislabelled as 'Blue-Eye Cod' or 'Blue-Eye', especially in restaurants.
It is a marine species, caught by droplines and longlines along the continental slope from Sydney to Adelaide. It is available all year, though supplies peak in summer (from SA) and autumn (from TAS).
It is also imported from New Zealand.
| Government Stock Assessment | ||||
| Overfishing | Biomass | AMCS Listing | Accreditations | |
| Commonwealth (Majority of catch) |
No Overfishing | Not Overfished | Eat Less | - |
| NSW | Fully Fished | - | - | |
| What do these terms mean? | ||||
The Why & How of Sustainability
The disagreement over the status of blue-eye trevalla appears to be over what is an acceptable bycatch of deepwater sharks and possibly seabirds. Blue-eye are caught mainly on long-line with little habitat damage and lower bycatch rates than trawl fisheries. However, there are three listed endangered dogfish and two gulper shark species under consideration for protection that are caught in the fishery.
So this very tasty fish has a problem with its shark cousins, which just weren’t built to cope with fishing even when they weren’t the targets. Industry is increasing monitoring of catches and has run programs with skippers to increase the awareness and identification of the listed sharks. It is difficult to see an easy solution, but watch this space.
More information on Government stock assessments and the Australian Blue-Eye Trevalla Fishery is available HERE
Preparation & Cooking:
Blue-Eye Trevalla is a very versatile and popular fish, due to its firm, moist and delicately flavoured white flesh. Fillets will hold up well when grilling, frying or BBQ'ing and it can handle robust flavours.
Sustainable Alternatives:
ALTERNATIVE 1: Mulloway
Many other white fleshed fish can be used in place of Blue-Eye Trevalla with ease, and MULLOWAY makes a suitable alternative when grilling or frying because of its mild flavour and moist flesh.
ALTERNATIVE 2: Coral Trout
CORAL TROUT has moist, pearly white flakes of meat. A great alternative to Blue-Eye Trevalla when steaming or poaching, as these moist methods of cookery allow the delicate flavour to shine.
ALTERNATIVE 3: Luderick
Though not as popular as Blue-Eye Trevalla, LUDERICK is just as versatile. The soft white flesh and unique flavour of Luderick will hold up well to both dry cooking methods such as grilling or BBQ'ing and gentler wet cooking methods such as steaming.